


Whispering Riptide

by orphan_account



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Free! Kink Meme, Minor Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 20:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2554325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's something smooth and soft against Chigusa's cheek. A hand? She stirs and blearily blinks her eyes open to see a beautiful pair as red as the rubies in her jewelry box gazing back at her. Pretty lips smile at her.</p>
<p>"Thank goodness. For a moment there, I thought I was too late."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whispering Riptide

**Author's Note:**

> A fill for a prompt on the Free! kinkmeme. Shamelessly influenced by The Little Mermaid. 
> 
> http://iwatobiswimclub.dreamwidth.org/2701.html?thread=3712141#cmt3712141

Being a princess was tiring and tedious. Sometimes Chigusa felt like she had no will of her own. She could only wear what she was told to wear, she couldn't step foot outside the palace without a guard, even then she could only go to the places her parents had approved, she could only talk to other members of royalty and only then when she was spoken to first, and her duty was to look pretty and marry the suitor her parents picked out for her.

But Chigusa _did_ have will of her own. A fierce, burning will to turn against the tide of all that was enforced on her. She was caught up in the blur of it all, but she wanted to explore! She wanted to take her hair down and break free, travel the seas and touch the sky! Noble heritage was supposed to be something she was proud of, but all it was doing was holding her down and stripping away her spirit. 

Chigusa decided that there was only one thing to do. Run away. 

* * *

 Chigusa slips out of bed when her parents have gone to sleep and tiptoes across the floor. She opens the drawer to her bureau as quietly as possible and takes a strand of pearls that glimmer in the moonlight that shines in from the window, the pale of them luminescent. She puts them on, then dons a warm fur shawl and her shoes, and flees.  

Guards stand post at the front gate always, but members of the royal family—even ones whose purpose is to be prettily painted puppets, like herself—are all taught how to use the secret passageways in case of emergencies. She creeps to the library and pushes into the painting of her father on the wall between the two tallest bookshelves. The wall revolves, directing her into a dark, windowless corridor. 

Chigusa swallows, her heartbeat quickening. Her palms are getting sweaty. She presses close to the cold stone wall and follows along it, her footsteps echoing behind her. The walk feels like it lasts an eternity. The black before her is impenetrable, as chilling as screams and as endless as oblivion. She can feel the thin, hairy legs of spiders skitter over her fingers, cobwebs tickling her face and getting caught in her hair. 

It's frightened and a part of her wants to cry out and turn back, but she can't. Freedom is worth braving this, and anything else that comes after. Chigusa carries on with a stiff upper lip until at last, there is a pale, silvery glow around the corner. A moonbeam. She's reached the exit. 

Chigusa rushes forward into the outside, finding herself in the empire's garden. Around her are orchids, lilies, and berry bushes and above her is a dazzling map of stars. She follows the stars to the docks and lays claim to the smallest boat she can find. She hops in and unties its tether, leaving her necklace there as payment for whomever she's just stolen it from. 

There are ores and though Chigusa has never actually paddled before, she's seen it done. She grips them with sweaty fingers and starts paddling. She paddles on and on, the ornate palace she's known all her life growing smaller and smaller behind her. It becomes a mere speck before it becomes nothing at all and then she keeps paddling until daybreak chases the stars away. 

By then, she's exhausted. Her arms are sore. Her eyelids are heavy...

* * *

Thrashing waves tear Chigusa from her dreams. 

She wakes with a gasp as her boat is tossed from side to side on a storming sea. Coal black clouds block out the sun, eating up all the blue. Thin, bright lightning crackles across them and then a booming crack of thunder is the only warning Chigusa has as rain pelts down in a fury. It's freezing cold and so heavy it stings her skin. It burns her eyes until they're streaming. She has to cling to the side of the boat as the harsh, biting wind threatens to blast her out of the boat. 

The waves are violent, too powerful for the tiny boat to handle. It's whipped side to side, from crest to foaming crest. Chigusa is doused in saltwater, struggling to breathe as it gets splashed into her lungs. She's losing her grip on the boat. The typhoon rages on, the wind picking up speed until it's so strong Chigusa can't open her eyes. 

It buffets her so hard it nearly blows her away. A tsunami rises beneath the boat and soars high enough to blur into the sky. In the chaos all the terror in Chigusa's heart bleeds out and leaves her feeling as cold as the sharp wind biting at her back as a single thought rings clear in her mind. 

_'I'm going to die.'_

The mighty comes crashing down and the boat capsizes, spilling Chigusa into the rolling seas. She hits the surface like a brick and then her vision goes black. 

* * *

 

 There's something smooth and soft against Chigusa's cheek. A hand? She stirs and blearily blinks her eyes open to see a beautiful pair as red as the rubies in her jewelry box gazing back at her. Pretty lips smile at her.

"Thank goodness. For a moment there, I thought I was too late." 

Fuzzy memories of the storm float to Chigusa's remembrance. She blinks again, slowly and glances up to the clear blue sky above. The sun is shining and she's on the shore, the sand warm and dry under her back. 

"Did you save me?" she asks, looking back to those ruby-red eyes. 

"Yes. I couldn't save your boat though." 

"Thank you." Chigusa sits up and then gasps as she sees the full body of her savior. 

From the waist up she is a human with a slight belly, sleek arms, and dark burgundy hair pulled back in a ponytail by a ribbon of seaweed. Her torso would look normal, if it weren't for the gills along her ribs and the cluster of scales cupping her breasts. The scales resume below her waistline, where her tail starts, mainly cream colored, but patched with red and speckled by black like a koi fish. Her scarlet fins are the long, gracefully sweeping fins of butterfly koi. 

"A mermaid!" 

The mermaid nods. "But don't even think of eating me," she adds sternly.  "It won't really make you immortal and my ghost will haunt you until your last breath!"

"No, I'd never think of doing something like that! You saved my life, I owe—" Chigusa breaks off, coughing harshly. 

At once the mermaid takes her by the face and presses her mouth agains Chigusa's. She intakes deeply, literally sucking the remaining seawater from Chigusa's lungs and freeing her airway. She sits back and watches Chigusa breathe for a moment, her hands still holding her face until she's sure she's gotten all the water. 

"Thank you," Chigusa murmurs. She feels dazed and amazed. She can't help staring at the elegant creature before her. 

"You're welcome." The mermaid rests her weight on the back of her palms, her tail stretched out in front of her, sunlight glimmering on her scales. 

"Do you have a name?" asks Chigusa. 

"Huh?" 

"You rescued me. I wouldn't be here anymore if it weren't for you, so I'd like to know your name." 

"Gou," says the mermaid. "Though I prefer to go by Kou. It's much prettier and it suits me better." 

"I am Chigusa. Thank you, Kou-san." Chigusa bows her head. Even if she didn't want to be a princess anymore, she would always employ the courtesy she was raised with. "Is there anything I can do to repay you?" 

Kou blinks and hums in consideration. "I can't think of anything now...Do you suppose you could meet me here later?" she asks with a grin. 

Chigusa looks around the beach. Where is _here_ exactly? She has no clue. She can see a road though. And docks farther down the sand. Just as she's about to tell the mermaid that she can meet her tomorrow she notices that Kou is paler than she was before.

"Are you alright?" she asks. 

"I need to get back to the water soon," explains Kou, motioning to her gills and tail. "If I stay up here too long, I'll dry out." 

 "Oh no! Do you need help?" 

 "I'm fine." Kou dismissively waves her tail. "I can handle it." 

Chigusa relaxes and feels a tad embarrassed for overreacting. She knows nothing about mermaids, she doesn't know how long it takes them to dry out or anything like that at all. 

"I'll definitely meet you here later," she promises.

"How does sunset sound?" Kou begins to scoot backward into the water, her tail fin making ripples in the sand. 

Chigusa has to pause. The taste of freedom is fresh in her mouth. She can show up at sunset or whenever she wants because there's nothing to chain her down anymore. 

"It sounds great," she answers with a smile. 

Now in the shallows, Kou twists around so that her tail is completely submerged. If Chigusa didn't know better, she would think she was human. 

"Sunset it is then, Chigusa-chan." Kou winks and then dips down, lost under the surface. Her tail flicks back up just moments later, much further out, and Chigusa is stunned that she could be so fast. Then she vanishes completely. 

Left alone with only the sounds of the ocean and the heat of the sand, it dawns on Chigusa that she doesn't have her shawl anymore. She lost it in the storm. There was money concealed in one of the pockets and she planned to sell it for more money, enough to get herself started...But now it's gods' know where...Uh-oh... 


End file.
